Just to tell you beforehand, I had serious reservations about posting this. Oh, I’m kind of scared, but I’ll power through. Okay. And it’s super wordy. Sorry. I’m writing this because I just completed my first sculpture. Ever. And I’m really excited but nervous and obviously super insecure about it. Because I am not an artist in any way, shape, or form. I have always been crafty, but have really stayed away from fine art because the truth is I’m not that good at it. When I was signing up for classes for this semester, I wanted to take an art class but none of the beginner classes fit in with my schedule. A friend (who’s also a sculpture minor) said that we should take intermediate sculpture together. INTERMEDIATE. With no art experience. She said the teacher was amazing and it would be fine. So, I did it. And it’s been so intimidating. The people in my class are really good. They’re also really nice and encouraging.

In all other parts of my crafty life, I pretty much know what I’m doing. I know that I’m a good knitter. People might not like the patterns or colors that I choose, but technically, I have the skills to knit well. It’s kind of the same way with crafting. You might not like everything that I make but I know my way around a hot glue gun. But this is a whole new ballpark, and I feel like I’m completely out of my element. So, that’s my disclaimer. First I’ll show pictures and then I’ll blather on.

The deal with this sculpture is that we were given these little plants and told that we had to in some way incorporate them into a sculpture. I knew that I wanted to knit something. The first thing that came to my mind was an urban roof garden. I decided that I would knit a building and then put my plant on top with all kinds of knitted flowers and plants. I didn’t understand what a HUGE undertaking this was. I’m a fast knitter, but I’ve never knit on such short deadlines, and the building that I made is BIG. By the time the project was due, I thought that it was fine. I wasn’t thrilled with it, but I was willing to let it go. My teacher told me that if I wanted, I could expand the project and count it towards my first two sculptures. I decided to do that. The assignment for the second sculpture was to make something as big as your body, so I had to figure out a way to make this building a lot bigger. I hung it from a metal stand (that I bent and welded, yeah, pretty proud of that part). I really liked this idea of making a fire escape, but I didn’t want my sculpture to look like a diorama so I decided to make the stairs of the fire escape come down to the floor. After so many hours and many months, it’s done. And now it’s a thing outside of me and I’m really proud of it.

(This post is a little late. But to be fair, the recipient needed to get it before I could talk about it, plus a few weeks for “editing.” yeah, that’s what we’ll call it.)

The funny thing about being a twin is that there’s another person who shares a birthday with you. Who woulda thunk? I wanted to share with you what I got/made Danielle for her Birthday.

I made the red headband from this pattern and I was going to keep it for myself, but then I felt guilty (to be fair, it looked really cute on me, and I have a funky head, so it’s hard to find cute headbands). It was super quick and easy, but somehow I thought that her head was the size of an elephant because it was HUGE. I had to take it out and re-knit it.

I knit the heart from my own pattern. (There will be more about it soon, so stay tuned!)

I made the card (have to admit, I’m pretty proud of myself/really excited about it)

The tote is from Mystic Moose Creations, and I absolutely love it (I may have gotten the exact same thing for myself, and by may I mean that I definitely did)

I feel like a bad blogger lately (she says after a month of blogging, in other news, today is my one month blogoversary!!!). I’ve been super busy, basking in the sun (also, my computer is freaking the fuck out). It’s funny, I feel most like a college student when I’m sitting on the grass with tons of people, watching everyone play frisbee. I’ve been kind of obsessed with instagram lately so I thought I’d share some of my recent pics.

Today, I thought that I’d share a few of the projects in my ravelry queue that I hope to start soon (I know what I said the other day about finishing my WIPs, but a girl can change her mind. Don’t look at me like that. This yarnbombing is making me a very monogomous knitter, which is just not in my nature. Once it’s done, I’m back on the prowl)

First and foremost, I am truly and madly in love with this. Seriously, this blanket is the shit. (In case you didn’t know, I’m a proud Whovian)

I bought this pattern quite a while ago and have been itching to make it, but I’m a little scared. I can crochet (kind of), but I’ve never attempted a project this big or complicated. But come on, it’s a crocheted taxidermy moose. Who doesn’t love a good crocheted taxidermy moose?

This lace shawl. Swoon. I love lace knitting and haven’t done any in a while. But blocking is my nemesis and I will destroy it.

I love this idea of knitting a clock! It’s just so cute and clever, I saw it and wished I had thought of the idea first! Maybe by the time I’m finished, I will be better at actually telling time because, confession time, I’m pretty bad at telling time. I have to count fives in my head, and it’s embarrassing.

The sentimental softie in me loves the idea of a t-shirt quilt, and goodness know that I have enough t-shirts to make about a dozen of them. What has stopped me before from making one is that I think that with only t-shirts and no borders, they just look to busy and messy. I love that this looks neat and not cluttered.

As I’ve been saying, the yarnbombing is taking up most of my time, but once I’m done with it, I am on a mission to finish all of my WIPs and hibernating projects before I go on to new things. It just seems like the right thing to do. I am sharing them with you because I need to air out my dirty laundry in public and hopefully shame myself into finishing these projects. The worst part is that most of them areso close to being done.

This also needs handles and lining. (Better pics once it's finished, I promise)

This ALSO needs a strap and to be lined. I'm sensing a pattern here and I don't like it.

These are projects that requires my mom’s assistance and sewing machine, so finishing them will probably happen at the beginning of the summer (it’s fast approaching people) or maybe, maybe over spring break (I’m not keeping my hopes up). The good thing is that I have actually bought the lining fabric for all of them, so at this point it’s just a matter of doing it.

That’s mostly it. I mean, there are a few more, but at this point I’m not willing to admit how many (I’ll never tell and you can’t make me). Also, many of them are at home rather than at school, so I pretend like they don’t exist. But I really am committed to geting these done. Kinda. Why is starting projects so much more fun and exciting than finishing them?

(I have a confession. I wrote this post almost a week ago, but I haven’t taken any pictures of the project. The reason is that it looks ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I love the colors and it’s going to look amazing when finished, but it just looks stupid without a pole. It’s stockinette so it’s super roll-y (is that even a word?) and there are about 17 million ends sticking out. Not usually the way I like to present my knitting (have I talked before about my obsessive crafty perfection streak?) But, today something happened that was just too exciting to not post about.

Drumroll please (and excuse the bad pictures, my dorm is just not the place to take them but it’s the only full length mirror)

It’s officially taller than me!!!!!!) Okay, now back to the original post.

As much as I’d like to pretend otherwise, I have a huge deadline looming and it’s coming closer every day. The project has to be installed by April 26, and I think that it’s going to take at least a week to install it. That means that the knitting has to all be done by about April 20, which is in like 40 days.(less now) Oy vey. I did the math, and it means that I need to knit about 2.3 feet a day. That is a lot of knitting. But I’ve been able to pretty much knit that much in the last two days, so hopefully it will work out.

(Was that confusing? Sorry, my brain is a little jumbled with midterms this week. If I can manage to take better pics of the knitting, I might swap them out because these ones are really bugging me, but so is life.)

I have a confession… I am a link-sender. I send many many links and videos and pictures to friends and family, and I’m not one of those kind, relaxed link senders. I’m like ‘have you read it? how about now?….now? You’re killing me! Watch the goddamn video I sent you asshole. ‘ (thankfully, that’s the […]